Thursday, September 1, 2016

The Sleeptember® campaign is encouraging people to “Go Dark” and take a
pledge to turn off the lights and electronic devices a bit earlier this
month in order to add 15 minutes of sleep each week or seek other ways
to improve their sleep health. Research and national surveys show that
the average adult gets about an hour less of sleep on average than they
actually need to boost their mood, safety and immune system.1 People who
take the Sleeptember Pledge are entered into a sweepstakes to win an
Apple Watch. Other contests and challenges will take place during
Sleeptember and the rest of the year to encourage people around the
world to get involved, improve their health and contribute their ideas
to the campaign and patient-centered research studies.

“We are a community of people with chronic health conditions, non-profit
organizations, and other partners working together to raise awareness
of how sleep impacts our health, safety, well-being, and productivity
while raising funds for patient-centered medical research,” said Will
Headapohl, chairman of the American Sleep Apnea Association, which
sponsors the Sleeptember.

Good sleep promotes good health. Sleep represents a third of every
person’s life and it has a tremendous impact on how we live, function
and perform during the other two-thirds of our lives. It is indeed as
vital as the air we breathe and the food we eat, especially for those
with chronic diseases or compromised immune systems. Untreated sleep
disorders and chronic sleep loss are associated with a significant
increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes,
anxiety and depression, substance abuse, certain types of cancer,
automobile crashes, on-the-job accidents, and total mortality along with
impaired work productivity, academic performance, and reduced quality
of life.2 The Sleeptember community seeks to crowdsource funds to
provide support to researchers to confirm connections and find new
discoveries to improve outcomes and interventions for the cancer, mental health, heart disease and children's health.